This blog is for me and my friends to share our original curriculum ideas meant for the Montessori classroom. We've gotten so many ideas from others we wanted to give back to that huge community out there!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

I've had this old, wooden peg board lying around forever and it seems like every school has this one! The pegs I've been able to find for it are the right diameter but are so tall they tip over and it's frustrating for the child. For this reason, I haven't put it out on the shelves in years.
While at Ben Franklin Christmas shopping I found these light pegs. On the packaging it said something about being for some kind of ceramic tree. I thought they looked like the right size and was so happy when they were! (I've since seen them at Michaels too)

This work was in constant use for all of December! Lots of patterns to be created and it looked so pretty when all done! The packs come with 75 pegs so if you have this pegboard (with 100 holes) get two. What a great small motor and pencil grasp activity!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

During our human body unit we devoted a couple of weeks to the five senses. The Mr. Sketch markers are a fond memory of my elementary days so I made a work out of it! We got the basic pack of 12 markers and printed out real images of each food they represented. On the back of each card I used the matching marker to make a dot of color for control of error. Then I made a black line image of each fruit for them to make their own booklet.

This is how they set it out.

After matching and self correcting each one to the color coding on the back of each card they could make a book using the smelly markers! They really do smell even when on the paper! The older child also wrote the name of the food on each page. We were sure to tell them not to put the marker on their nose or they'd have a mark!

Because the markers are so strong I grouped the 12 papers together with a paperclip and they colored each one separately on an art mat, so that the color wouldn't bleed on to the one behind it. They stapled it once they were done.

For our sense of taste we first did a taste test at circle with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty foods! Sweet was sugar cubes, salty was pretzels, sour was small lemon slices,and bitter was 100% dark chocolate! They were so excited about the chocolate and I did warn them to take a tiny bite, but they just couldn't help themselves! We saw some pretty good bitter faces!!

They then glued each food to the paper labeled 'My sense of taste'. We lucked out and found fake lemon slices at Michaels and cut them in to fourths! Much easier than gluing a real lemon slice!

For the sense of smell work we got creative! The rose petal is silk (a box from Michaels in the wedding section) and we sprinkled rose essential oil on to make it really smell! The brown circle is cinnamon. I put circles of glue on waxed paper and sprinkled cinnamon on it and let it dry for two days- worked great! The cedar is cut from a tree on our playground, and of course coffee beans!

For our sense of hearing work, I printed out different images onto label paper (so they are like stickers) and then cut them in half. There were 2 pictures per label. I couldn't think of many objects to glue, so we went this route. There are lots of instruments, a phone, a microphone. a bike horn, and headphones to represent what we use our sense of hearing for.

Before this lesson was presented (at circle) we listened to a CD I have from Joseph Weisnewski (http://www.weisnewski.com/) that has lots of sounds on on it for listening games. They enjoyed this very much! Everything from the sound of opening a can of pop to a baby crying! We then guessed what we heard when the track was done!

We also discussed the purpose of sign language! We use ASL on a daily basis in our classroom for basic communication skills as well as for finger plays in our songs. We talked about if cannot hear that this is how you communicate!

For the 5 Senses we focused on one each week. For the sense of touch we put out objects representing soft, hard, fluffy, pokey, and rough. Feathers, small rocks, beans, cotton balls, and sand were on the tray. (I ended up switching to actual sandpaper instead of sprinkling sand to avoid the mess).

They glued each item on a piece of paper labeled "My Sense of Touch".

We hung them up on the wall under 'Our sense of touch' to display for the month!

All these senses activities were loved and well used throughout our human body unit!

About Me

I live in Washington state in a very small town with my husband, my 13 year old son, our 16 year old foster daughter, 3 cats, one dog, 2 gerbils, and my horse. I've been in the Montessori field for 20 years and a lead teacher for 16. It's a huge part of my life and a great passion of mine. The Montessori Method never ceases to amaze me. I feel what it does for the kids and families I work with is priceless. Individualized education is something that is invaluable and it is what you find in a traditional Montessori school. The classroom is where I feel at home. I'm constantly creating my own materials and curriculum and thought this would be a great place to share it and get ideas from others! I feel lucky to be able to teach part time as it enables me to take care of my family and allows me time to put lots of extra thought and energy into my classroom!

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About Montessori

For those of you new to Montessori here are the basics! The Montessori method has been around for more than 100 years. Maria Montessori was a doctor who studied at the University of Rome's medical school. She developed her method of teaching in the early 1900's based on her scientific observations of child development. The first Montessori school was opened in Rome in 1907 and there are now thousands of Montessori schools all over the world. Maria Montessori based her method of teaching on world peace giving the young child a orderly environment where they can not only be independent but everyone can blossom at their own pace, work together for the greater good of the classroom, and celebrate their own uniqueness. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times!

In a Montessori preschool classroom we have 2 1/2- 6 year olds. The mixed age classroom creates such a dynamic environment and classroom community with everyone helping each other. The children all work at their own individual pace and levels. We meet them where they are at socially and academically, regardless of their age, and as Maria Montessori said "Follow the Child". The classroom is set up for the children to independently choose their own activities, and complete the work cycle of choosing a work, completing it, and putting it away in it's original place. Everyone is given individual lessons throughout the day on materials that are developmentally appropriate at that time. The carefully designed Montessori materials go in a sequence as they all build on complexity one after the other. Careful record keeping is done on each child to accurately track everyone's progress, strengths, and individual interests.